John Carter was not 1930's, you're right, but I'm wondering why Sky Captain failed - I saw it when it came out, and it was pretty good.
So you ask a question about 1930’s stye films but you really mean
SciFi films set in the 1930’s but then it turns out you are asking why
“Sky Captain” (a movie you liked) failed. Crazy way to get to your point.
I hope you get the answer you’re looking for. I don’t know why “Sky
Captain” failed other than to state the obvious: not enough people paid
to see it in the theater. If you want to draw the conclusion that the
reason was the “1930’s style” then you have drawn a conclusion that
most moguls have drawn. That’s why we have seen so few 1930’s style
SciFi films since 2004.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could know for sure why audiences don’t go
see a specific film? The producer who can look at past films and then
know for certain what films will fail and what films will succeed will only
make films that succeed. But we keep coming back to “nobody knows
anything.”
I wonder if it comes down to the same old thing? A story and characters
the general audience relates to. Despite all the tech available then and
now and in the future I have this belief that what an audience really wants
to see is a great story with characters they can relate to. Set that in any
era or any style and people will pay to see it. A 10 year old who has grown
up with video games and sophisticated CG efx can still watch and enjoy
the original "Star Wars" - which by the way was a "1930's style" movie
updated to a 1970's perspective that plays well with a 2010's audience.